Citation Analysis

Principle of Citation Analysis

You have some idea about what citation analysis is, but how does it work?

The principle of formal citation analysis is frequency. When performing formal citation analysis, the more times a publication appears in the citations of other works, the better that publication is.

In simple citation analysis, there is no absolute principle to determine the trustworthiness of an article. Instead, you look at two things.

1. The quality of its citations.

2. The accurate use of those citations.

These things will be discussed later when you learn how to analyze citations. First, though, you should know why citation analysis is worth your time in the first place. Understanding the following will also help you know what to look for when you begin to analyze citations yourself.

Citation Analysis Importance

Citation analysis is important because it helps you measure if an article is trustworthy to use, which is really at the heart of the matter.

Why is it important if a publication is trustworthy?

Although it seems like a given that you want to cite trustworthy articles, it's helpful to review those reasons, some of which you might not have considered.

Citation Analysis to Improve Arguments

Having tons of information at your disposal is great, but credible information is better.

Citation analysis helps you separate the weaker, easier-to-refute studies from the stronger, harder-to-refute studies. Trustworthy articles have more valid evidence in them. When you have valid evidence to support your arguments, you strengthen them.

Say you found this piece of evidence in an article.

Now imagine how important the source is for such a piece of evidence. You can make or break arguments with evidence like this. By studying the citations for this evidence in the article, you can make an informed decision whether to use this piece of evidence or dismiss it.

Fig. 1 - Big studies carry the weight of facts.

Citation Analysis to Prevent Logical Error

When you study an article's citations, you find out how accurate the article is. Therefore, citation analysis can find inaccurate articles, which will help you prevent logical errors in your essays.

For example, an article might say, "The wild tiger population will die out by 2030." Now, let's say you use this as a part of your essay's deductive reasoning.

This seems like a reasonable piece of deduction. However, it is not because the statement "the wild tiger population will go extinct by 2030" is not a fact. No study says this or has determined this. It's made up! Therefore, any deduction that uses this "fact" is invalid.

When an article says something, you cannot immediately take it as fact. You need to see if the fact comes from or cites a credible source. A great way to do that is by analyzing that fact's citation.

Citation Analysis to Avoid Misinformation

Finally, analyzing an article's citation can help you avoid spreading misinformation.

Say you find this fact in an article.

If you copied this "fact" into your essay, you would be guilty of spreading misinformation because this "fact" is not true. Citation analysis will help you say, "This information probably isn't true, and therefore I shouldn't include it in my essay."

Tools for Citation Analysis

You need three things to be successful at citation analysis.

"Understanding the Format" as a Tool

Citations come in many shapes and sizes. You, however, will probably be reading citations in MLA or APA format.

You need to be able to look at a citation and track it down. If the citation contains a website link, follow it. If the citation references something on paper, you can probably track the article down on an online database or repository.

"Logic" as a Tool

Sometimes, even a strong, accurate article might not work for your essay. To be sure that an article fits your topic, you need to be able to connect the evidence (and its citation) to your claim and arguments using a line of reasoning.

You should also understand how not to connect these things. Logic can sour into illogic, so study up on rhetorical fallacies, deductive flaws, inductive flaws, and causal flaws.

Fig. 2 - You can't make lemonade from illogic, unfortunately.

"Patience" as a Tool

Citation analysis is a process. You need patience. You need to be ready to sit down, study, and cross-reference material to analyze citations.

Patience can go a long way. It can help you resist skipping a step or give you extra time to learn something properly. One reason misinformation and illogic spread is because people don't take the time to fact-check.

Analyzing citations is the ultimate fact-checker!

Citation Analysis Example

Citation analysis serves as an essential tool for evaluating the significance of scholarly work in academia. Take a look at some examples of how citation analysis is used.

1. A researcher might use citation analysis to determine the impact of a specific article by analyzing how many other articles have cited it since its publication. This can provide insights into the influence of the article within its field.

2. An academic institution might conduct a citation analysis of its faculty's publications to assess the impact of its research output.

3. In a literature review, a researcher might use citation analysis to identify the most influential papers or authors in the field being studied. These influential works are often those that are frequently cited by other researchers.

There are four steps to analyzing a citation.

1. Identify the evidence you want to use.

2. Find the citation for the evidence.

3. Verify the cited work as accurate and unbiased.

4. Verify the cited work is used properly in context.

Following these steps, here is how to analyze a citation. The following example is entirely fictional!

1. Identify the Evidence You Want to Use

Say this is the claim you want to support.

Now say you find this in an article. The highlighted portion is the evidence.

Okay, so now you've got the evidence you want to use. Time to move toward the citation.

2. Find the Citation for the Evidence

You will find the citation in a book's bibliography or works cited section. You will find it in a web page's works cited section. If you can't find a citation for the evidence, you can stop here and dismiss the evidence. Evidence must have some source.

In the case of our example, you find a citation in APA format. It looks like this.

If the citation contains a hyperlink, simply click it to find the original source. If the citation is plain text, copy and paste the plain text link into your browser and go there directly.

3. Verify the Cited Work as Accurate and Unbiased

All right, now you're in the original article or study. You can do two things.

1. Crosscheck the author or institution.

Step one is to crosscheck the author or institution. Your goal here is to verify the credibility of one or both of these. This will take you to other pages and websites beyond the article.

For instance, research Bloomgloomdoom University. In this case, you find it is a for-profit, online-only school with no research facilities. You find the author is Parky Parks, the school's co-founder, who is not a medical professional but has a business degree.

2. Read the article or study.

Reading the article, you find it is not a study but an "informative bulletin." It cites a few legitimate articles but none regarding the relevant information. The part you want has no further citation.

At this point, you can dismiss the original article's evidence because its citation has turned up a dud. For the sake of continued exercise, however, now pretend that Bloomgloomdoom University is as big as Harvard, a study took place, and the writer is a medical professional. It's time to see how well the article writer used Bloomgloomdoom's information.

4. Verify the Cited Work is Used Properly In Context

Remember, this is the part that the original article cited.

And this is the original article's whole argument, using said evidence.

Now say this is what the Bloomgloomdoom article says.

See the disparity? The article you want to cite has taken Bloomgloomdoom's data and misrepresented it hugely. First, "1% of cases" is misleading because the study specified that those "1% of cases" involved patients 65 and older (not everyone). Second, Doom Disease is not a "deadly epidemic or pandemic waiting to happen." The study explains the disease is not highly contagious.

Thus, the evidence you want to use from that article is misrepresentative, and you should not use it.

Citation analysis is a powerful method you can use to validate citations on any topic. Work through it on your own articles and essays!